posted at 5:11 pm on January 31, 2013 by Erika Johnsen

Mitt Romney got a good deal of flak during the election season for calling Russia “our number one geopolitical foe,” but it turns out that the bigger headlines about jailing free-thinking punk rockers, seeking an international agreement on Internet restrictions, using their regional energy dominance to exert untoward influence, and banning Westerners from Russian adoption is really just the tip of a nefarious iceberg.

At an annual meeting on Thursday, a human rights group claimed that Russia has had a pretty banner year — but not in a good way, via Reuters:

Authoritarianism increased last year in Russia to levels unseen since the Soviet era with a raft of harsh laws curbing political freedoms and harassment of opposition activists and critics, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.

The crackdown coincided with the return of Vladimir Putin to the Kremlin and the appointment of his predecessor and protégé, Dmitry Medvedev, as prime minister, according to the New York-based group. …

Speaking at a news conference in Moscow accompanying the publication of its annual report on human rights worldwide, Denber also criticized the government’s stance toward the West.

Since Putin started a six-year term in May, he has signed laws restricting protests, demanding foreign-funded non-governmental organizations register as “foreign agents,” and setting new rules on treason that critics say could place almost anyone who associates with foreigners at risk of prosecution.

So, which cautious approach to our Russian foriegn policy would we prefer: “Russia, this is, without question, our number one geopolitical foe. They — they fight every cause for the world’s worst actors,” versus “After my election, I have more flexibility”?

As we see time and time again, authoritarian-leaning regimes are not very receptive to many manners of criticism. Russia’s poignant response to the accusations of human rights abuses?

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich… said the Russian ministry’s own annual reports have shown that “there are serious systemic problems in the sphere of human rights in the United States and many European Union countries.”

“Before you criticize others, you should look at yourself,” Lukashevich said at a weekly briefing.

Blowback

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Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich… said the Russian ministry’s own annual reports have shown that “there are serious systemic problems in the sphere of human rights in the United States and many European Union countries.”

Yep, we’ve heard that before. Soviet Russia V2.0. Sounds just like their old propaganda. I guess we are looking at a more fascist state than communist this time.

Russia has moved to ban videos by Pussy Riot punks as extremist after a court rejected a complaint by a freed member of the band, paving the way for the possible blocking of websites. It is an offence to distribute or publish anything from the Justice Ministry’s blacklist, but it is not yet clear how the ban will be implemented. The videos include one showing the women’s performance in Moscow’s Church of Christ the Saviour. A video of this has been viewed on YouTube almost 2.5 million times. Google, which owns YouTube, said after the November ruling it could only decide on whether to block video materials when given copies of court documents listing specific links.

Putin and Medvedev spend their Sunday afternoons sitting around the Kremlin making fun of Obama and telling dirty jokes about Hillary and John Kerry. And there’s an office pool on who gets to embarrass Chuck Hagel first.

It would, of course have a lot more credibility if carney, obama, pelosi or reid said it. It would also have full credibility if MSNBC, CNN, NYT, Gannet, ABC, NBC, CBS stated it. You could just count it as fact.